Glendale home prices rise again

Daniel Siegal, daniel.siegal@latimes.com

The median prices of single-family homes and condominiums continued their double-digit gains in Glendale last month, the result of an ongoing shortage of homes for sale and a wealth of potential buyers, according to the latest real estate report.

The median price of a home jumped 28% compared to May 2012, going from $595,000 to $762,000, according to statistics compiled by Realtor Keith Sorem with Keller Williams Realty in Glendale.

The median price of a condominium also rose significantly, increasing 18.5% from $270,000 a year ago to $320,000 last month.

Kendyl Young, Realtor and founder of DIGGS, a division of Dilbeck Real Estate, said that although prices are rising, she thinks talk of another housing bubble is premature.

"While I don't see a bubble coming on, I think we're enjoying healthy appreciation for the year," she said. "We're nowhere near the kind of economic conditions we had in the 2006 bubble."

Housing inventory remains thin, according to Sorem's report. There were 83 homes on the market last month, a 29.7% drop from 118 a year ago. The number of condos on the market saw a similar decline, sliding 40%, from 60 for sale in May 2012 to 36 last month.

Young said that despite the high demand, inventory is staying low because potential sellers are still wary of an economy that's slow to recover.

"I think we have a long way to go in fixing our economy and the problems we have in our lending industry before people are going to make what I call discretionary moves — moving because they want to," she said.

Also contributing to the tight supply is the continued plummet in the number of foreclosed homes and short sales on the market, which made up 16% of total sales last month, a huge drop from 38% a year ago. Only about 5% of transactions involved foreclosed properties.

Young said that another factor is the cyclical impact of low inventory, in which potential sellers can't find new homes to move into, and therefore don't sell.

"I have a lot of conversations, 'I'd love to sell, but where am I supposed to go,'" she said. "It kind of constrains the entire market."

The number of homes sold held steady. Transactions on 50 homes closed last month, compared to 53 last year. Condo sales rose, however, with 41 sold last month, up from 27 in May 2012.

In the La Crescenta-Montrose area, 29 single-family homes were on the market last month, a 33% drop from 43 in May 2012, according to Sorem's report. Twenty-seven homes sold last month, down from 31 a year ago.

The median price of a home in La Crescenta climbed from $500,000 in May 2012 to $682,000 last month.

Six condos sold last month, down from nine a year ago. And there were five condos on the market, sliding from 15 in May 2012.

In La Cañada Flintridge, the number of single-family homes for sale declined to 47, a 34% drop from 71 a year ago, and the number of homes sold fell from 33 to 19.